HDX is the HouseDex Housing Index framework: a flagship Market Balance index in development, supported by distinct housing research families. Each measure answers a specific question. Rentals sit within HDX-R, the Rental Market family.
Who has more negotiating power?
Brings buyer and seller conditions into one market story. More buyer choice and slower sales can tell a different story from rising prices.
Sales, new listings, homes for sale and selling time, matched to the same market and property type.
In development · resale inputs required
How much choice do buyers have?
Shows how much stock is available and how quickly it is being absorbed. A home listed for sale is different from a home still being built.
Active listings, new listings and months of supply.
In development · inventory inputs required
Where are home prices moving?
Separates price levels from direction and pace. An expensive market can be falling; a cheaper market can be rising.
Comparable home-price measures and changes over matched periods and property types.
Published new-home pilot · resale coverage in development
What does owning a home cost relative to income?
Connects the purchase price to the monthly household budget. A lower interest rate alone does not prove a market is more affordable.
Home prices, household income, financing assumptions and recurring ownership costs.
In development · matched cost and income inputs required
Are more homes actually reaching the market?
Separates permission to build from construction and finished homes. Existing total-permit research is context only: it also includes non-residential projects.
Residential permits, starts, units under construction and completions, kept as distinct stages.
Published completion-delivery pilot · wider pipeline research continues
What is happening to advertised rents?
A dedicated rental research family within HouseDex. Asking rents describe advertised homes, not every existing lease or tenant’s cost.
Covered two-bedroom apartment asking-rent estimates, their changes and their relative position.
Published pilots · periods vary
Explore rental research ↗The specific condition the reading describes.
What the number and its direction actually mean.
Whether it compares places, the same place over time, or a defined benchmark.
The geographic area and property type included.
The period measured, the published snapshot and any revision.
What the reading cannot establish, including missing coverage.
A future flagship score must use a defined scale with a consistent direction, tested interpretation and matched inputs. We do not publish a synthetic number by blending unrelated rental, population and permit scores. Detailed formulas, weights, acquisition systems and calibration remain private; public interpretation and required acknowledgements remain available.
The homes listed for sale at a particular point in time. It is a stock of available homes, not the number of homes newly listed during a month.
How long the homes currently for sale would take to sell at the stated sales pace, if no new listings were added. Illustration: 900 homes for sale ÷ 300 sales per month = 3 months of supply. This is not a prediction that each home will sell in three months. Market and property-type context matters.
Sales during a period divided by new listings during the same period. Illustration: 300 sales ÷ 600 new listings = 50%. It compares flows during a period; months of supply uses the stock available for sale.
A benchmark tracks a defined typical home or comparable property basket under the provider’s method. An average is the sum of sale prices divided by the number of sales, and can move because the mix of homes sold changed.
The level says what homes cost. Momentum describes how prices are changing over a defined period. A high price level does not mean prices are rising.
A change from 4% growth to 2% growth is a decline of 2 percentage points. It is a change in the growth rate, not a 2% fall in the underlying price or rent.
A permit is permission for a project. A start means construction has begun under the provider’s definition. A completion is a finished home under that definition. These stages cannot be added together as if they were separate new homes.
Asking rent is the advertised amount for a home offered to tenants. It can differ from the rent people pay under existing leases. Our rental pilots cover two-bedroom apartment estimates, not every rental type.
A scale defined by a particular measure. It is not automatically a percentage, probability, affordability rating or “good market” score. The meaning of 50 and the direction of the scale must be explained for that measure.
The reference period is when the measured activity happened. The publication date is when the reading was released. Updating website wording does not make an old observation current.